Need to purchase a hydraulic thumb for my 110. I have been getting by without it but with a large demo job coming up where this machine is needed I cannot be dinking around anymore. I am scared of the ebay route as you never know who/what you are getting. Locally its over 1500 dollars for just the thumb, Then I need hoses and to weld it on. Looking for owners that already have them, to see what size, brand, and how well it works. Thanks in advance.
I made a mistake. I bought one off of eBay that was rated for a mini excavator nearly twice the size of mine. It arrived very promptly and it took me a couple of weeks to remove a wear plate on the stick (where items sticking out of the bucket would wear on the stick), get everything lined up where it would work at maximum extension and retraction, and get it welded on. It had a "12 month warranty" from the manufacturer.
As widely noted in the news, we have had record flooding in my area. I took time off from work to move large pieces of driftwood and other debris in the way of sandbagging some elderly folks' homes. After about 5 hours of use, I noticed my hydraulic cylinder was badly leaking. After taking it home that night I also discovered that the jaw on the thumb was badly bent. As a matter of fact, it was close to being folded in half.
To justify your concerns, I contacted the company who built it and sold it on eBay and they first claimed that I used it on too powerful of a machine (um, my mini is 9000 pounds under their suggested size - I actually went up 2 sizes to try to avoid this sort of trouble). Then they said they would send me a new cylinder and jaw for the thumb and that my jaw was missing some bracing. After taking it off, knowing metal working from the last 30 years, I could easily see where it would never hold up as designed.
Well, that was a month ago, and I've seen nothing from them.
I took the thumb to a local machine shop who used their 100 ton press to press the thumb jaw back into shape as best they could and also weld in 1/2" angle bracing where the hydraulic cylinder attached to the thumb. That allowed me to help those in need as long as I carried a 5 gallon pail of hydraulic fluid with me. Fortunately, since I was using the machine for volunteer work to help others, the machine shop refused any money for 2 of their employees spending a half a day using their equipment fixing the defective thumb jaw. I contacted my credit card company and reversed all charges for the thumb after that debacle.
Now I'm supposed to receive a replacement cylinder today for Mr. Leaky on there now. I'm glad the machine shop didn't charge me their gong rate to fix the manufacture defect in the thumb jaw design. I'd have another $500 in the thumb besides a full day of wasting my time. Hopefully the replacement cylinder will get everything working right. Maybe I'm wrong, but i expect them to send the same under-sized Chinese made cylinder that will also promptly fail; leaving me to go buy a quality cylinder on my own. As I said, hopefully I'm wrong.
Anyway, I don't want to violate any rules and mention that company, but it is one who sells their wares on eBay. Therefore, I clearly understand your hesitation on buying anything off of ebay when it comes to a hydraulic thumb. Good luck!
